False ego. False ego is a very interesting component. In fact, this is the very component with which the material world deceives the spiritual parcel. False ego means such consciousness by which an eternal soul identifies itself with a temporary material body. This consciousness by means of the concept of death brings soul the sense of fear. This very fear becomes the force driving actions of soul in this world. There starts the struggle for existence which is expressed as the belief in superiority of the own right for existence. Such belief allows a living being to keep its own life by the means of life of another living being without any feeling of guilt. The roughest occurrence of this mood is meat-eating. In the Aryan society, meat-eating was only attributed to members of lower social strata and only in the strict compliance with certain limitations. Those attached to uncontrolled meat-eating lived outside of the Aryan civilization and were considered uncivilized tribes. Identification with false ego divides all beings into well-wishers and enemies. Enemies are all those whose actions threaten our existence or pleasures, and friends are those who maintain our existence or pleasures. So living beings become slaves of desires and dislikes. This is the greatest problem for a conditioned soul. To solve this problem is the intention of all Aryan (like any other) philosophy. The Aryans understood that attachments (desires) and hatred (envy) would destroy in a personality in particular and in society in general the principle of justice. Therefore, the Vedas focus on the way how to solve this problem. Violation of the principle of justice leads to unjust sufferings and the subsequent desire for revenge.
In the Bhagavad-Gita (chapter 3, Verse 36-37) Arjuna asks:
O descendant of Vrsni, by what is one impelled to sinful acts, even unwillingly, as if engaged by force?
And the answer is:
It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material modes of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring, sinful enemy of all beings in this world.
The Vedas describe three gunas (modes) of the material nature: goodness, passion and ignorance. Goodness is the preserving principle of this world, passion is the constructive principle and ignorance is the destructive power. The Universe is divided into three parts: higher (the place where pious persons live), middle (the place for those who are guided by desires) and lower (the place for those who deserve suffering only) planetary systems. Higher planetary systems are the home for demigods, the middle ones are for people and the lower ones are for demons. But this is a schematic description. Let us now see the internal structure of gunas.
The main guna of the material nature is passion (desires). All living beings communicate with the material world by their desires. There are two ways to fulfill desires: divine and demoniac. The divine method is applied by pious people who subordinate fulfillment of their desires to the Lord and following His instructions they achieve fulfillment of desires without troubling others. Demoniac persons always put hopes on their own strength. To raise possibilities to fulfill their desires, they develop science. Their only goal in life is sensory pleasures. To get pleasures they do not consider whom and how much trouble they give. Such pleasures are of extreme temporary nature and sure to bring to the material natures measures aiming to break in a person his/her tendency to violence. We think that this world has been created for our enjoyment. In fact, it has got only one function, the function of reeducation. Influenced by passion, people impelled by desires develop the attachment to fruitful activities. Such persons are very active. Uncontrolled senses push them to illegal activities. Regardless of sufferings and troubles giving to others, they are busy only satisfying their own desires. They always search for the ways to fulfill their desires. They create anxiety, suffering and disorder in society. At the beginning they hope for happiness and then suffer. The material world is the jail and its main function is to restore the deviated consciousness of a living being. In our zeal for happiness without God we must suffer until we understand that we are not able to find the recipe of this happiness. This function is never tiresome for the material nature. What helps to restore the deviated consciousness? First, it is willingness to be responsive to desires (needs) of other living beings; secondly, sympathetic attitude to their sufferings; and finally, acceptance of the own quantitative nothingness (as an eternally small fragmental part of the Supreme Personality of Godhead) and dependence. The first goal can be reached when a person understands that other living beings similarly look for happiness and avoid sufferings. This happens when a person suffers. By suffering, one understands what the other felt when he/she caused this suffering. And by being happy, one understands that the other did not want to lose it like he/she does not want to lose it now. When one understands the necessity not to cause others sufferings, he/she passes to a realization of a higher condition: not to hurt even after being hurt (the ability to forgive) and let others be happy when you are yourself unhappy. Such behavior is only possible when we understand that those who cause us sufferings and make us happy do not do it incidentally. There are some higher powers allowing us to do it in accordance with our deeds in past lives. This mindset lets us subordinate our existence and behavior to the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Let us see the example from the life of the Aryans. Five thousand years ago on our planet there lived the family of the spiritually elevated Aryans, the Pandavas who were the children of King Pandu. They had one wife Draupadi. For modern people this fact would be difficult to accept. But this fact has got its own background. Young Draupadi worshiped demigods with some religious rituals with the aim to get a good husband. When demigods were satisfied, they appeared before the princess and asked what she needed. The confused princess repeated her request five times. Then demigods blessed her to have five pious husbands. When it was the time to select a fiancé, there was also Arjuna, the middle brother of the Pandavas among the aspirants. He won the contest. Having got the beautiful Draupadi as his wife he came home with her. Coming to his mother, he said, Look, what treasure Ive brought. No turning back, Kunti answered her son, Good for you, all that you have brought equally divide among your brothers. Saying so, she looked back and saw Draupadi and the confused Arjuna. A problem ensued. For the Aryans their word had a special meaning. The mouth of mother Kunti had given the order that was meant to happen: Draupadi was to become the wife of five brothers. But Draupadi herself did not agree to it. All disputes in the Aryan society were settled by seeress brahmanas (priests). They could give an advice for any situation. The same thing was also done at that time. They cast Draupadis horoscope and said, This girl worshiped demigods and was blessed by them to have five husbands. This was the decree of providence for this blessing to fulfill. Everyone became quiet and Draupadui agreed to become the wife of the five Pandavas. Later she gave birth to five children from the brothers. When the war on the battlefield of Kurukshetra started (it was the bloodiest battle in the human history where religious and demonic persons confronted each other), the son of Pandavas spiritual master beheaded Draupadis five sons while they were innocently asleep. Arjuna chased Ashvatthama and captured him. He brought the captive to the feet of the great Draupadi who was in the inexpressible grief and wanted to behead the offender. Mother Draupadi stopped her husband by saying, He is the only son of his mother and I do not want her to feel the same pain like me. This is the example of nobleness of the Aryans. In their practical life they showed great soul qualities which were based on the perception of the equality of all living beings in the face of sufferings and happiness. Nowadays the patience is called on when someone else has suffered and measures to revenge are taken when we ourselves have suffered.
For the human form of life, the Aryans highlighted the great meaning of devoutness. They thought that when suffering would knock our door, the destiny would treat us the same way as we treated those in suffering around us. The Bhagavad-Gita notes many times the importance of the attitude to sufferings and happiness of this material world. A commoner differs from a self-realized person by the attitude to these two aspects.
In life we often have to encounter sufferings of living beings. When we express our compassion to them, we gather the so called pious reserve which gives God the ground to be compassionate to us when it is our turn to suffer. A pious person is able to overcome the desire for revenge when suffering comes (and it is typically caused by other living beings) and to rise to the guna of goodness (that is when one gets the ability to forgive). This is how a person progresses. But if while satisfying passions one only enjoyed and ignored others suffering, then when he/she suffers, God does not offer His hand to him/her and the person degrades to the guna of ignorance by means of envy and anger and refers to violence in attempts to keep enjoying. Thus, devoutness (compassion, mercy) is the basis of advancement but uncontrollable pleasure of senses accompanied by arrogance, that is the callous attitude towards other living beings (including animals), is the basis of degradation.
In the material world a living being appears in a difficult situation. On the one hand, one wishes to enjoy independently from God, but on the other hand one has got the nature of His eternal servant, that is dependence. This contradiction is the underlying cause of all sufferings of a living being.
Caged in this material world, living beings choose methods of fulfillment of their desires and accordingly get under the influence of certain gunas. The Bhagavad-Gita describes gunas as cause-and-effect mechanisms of this world. As it has been said, the Aryans consider the material world the place where living beings try to fulfill their desires to enjoy and prevail independently from God. And they try to realize these two desires via the three modes. The most spiritually elevated persons get the power in order to enjoy a little by themselves and do few good things to others, those lower than them strive for power in order to enjoy and acquire wealth by using other living beings and persons with the lowest level of consciousness take away the power to abuse. How can all these be understood? It means that pious people are very attached to ethical principles and understand that only by means of such principles in this material world a relative quiet and prosperous life can be provided. By ethical principles the Aryans did not mean those principles which are set based on the history or the experience of some or other nation, but the principles which are set by the Supreme Personality of Godhead Himself. Such mindset is natural for people who accept existence of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, dependence on Him and who give special importance to His opinion. Pious persons are always focused on the Vedas (the art how to connect in different situations to the Lord and solve problems via Him) and their consciousness is enlightened by this knowledge. They understand well characteristics of the material world and know how to govern society for it to be happy as far it is possible in this world.
The basis of the activity of pious persons is the sense of duty, the external regulating force is honor and the ultimate goal is liberation. What does the sense of duty is the activity basis mean? When one is sure that he/she is the eternal spiritual parcel, he/she can easily understand all delusiveness of the connection with this world. From this point of view, ones attitude to life and situations formed around the life is greatly different from the atheists attitude. When one knows his/her eternal nature and understands the reincarnation concept, such person becomes free from miserly thinking which is generated by the death (destruction) anxiety. The concept of our own eternity gives us the strength to sacrifice our one life without degradation of our virtues, if the life has not happened to be very successful from the point of view of material happiness and welfare. It is a very important mood and it is not be possible to be an Aryan without it. The atheists heart is filled with envy and the consecutive hatred which one starts to nourish to all people successful from the point of view of material welfare. The ultimate goal of an Aryan is to restore the spiritual consciousness. Such person has to solve various psychological problems which require а balanced condition. Such person understands that the more his/her behavior is instable and heedless, the more he/she will be entangled in material existence, in the cycle of birth and death. That is why, on the one hand, one tries not to have extra false attachments to temporary (from the point of view of soul) objects of sensory pleasures (as we can see it is the internal attitude); on the other hand, one sets a high value on the necessity to fulfill duties (the external behavior). Such person understands that it is not by mere chance that he/she has got into a certain situation and he/she tries to behave in a way so as not to attain such outcomes which could cause sufferings to him/herself and others. Activities of really virtuous people are based on their high conscience of their own duty. We need to highlight that the Aryan society was different from all other civilizations by its ability to bring up these very personalities. Nowadays the ability to bring up well-doers is also the main problem which people are trying to solve but to the best of our belief they have selected the incorrect route.
The Bhagavad-Gita (Chapter 3, Verses 18-21) says:
A self-realized man has no purpose to fulfill in the discharge of his duties prescribed by the Vedas, nor has he any reason not to perform such work. Nor has he any need to depend on any other living being.
Therefore, without being attached to the fruits of activities, one should act as a matter of duty; for by working without attachment, one attains the Supreme.
Even kings like Janaka and others attained the perfectional stage by performance of prescribed duties. Therefore, just for the sake of educating the people in general, you should perform your work.
Whatever action is performed by a great man, common men follow in his footsteps. And whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues.
As we see, the determining factor in peoples upbringing was the example given by the leaders of society. Society can never be virtuous, if its leaders are not. Therefore, the Aryan society paid a great attention to the purity of religious figures and state leaders. The higher caste which a person belonged to was, the stricter requirements were applied to him/her in terms of qualities of this person. The least significant requirements were applied to commoners.
As said above, the external regulating principle of the Aryans behavior was their honor. This factor played a great role in the Aryan society. When Arjuna refused to fight, Krishna told him (the Bhagavad-Gita, Chapter 2, Verses 31-36):
Considering your specic duty as a kshatriya, you should know that there is no better engagement for you than ghting on religious principles; and so there is no need for hesitation.
O Pārtha, happy are the kshatriyas to whom such ghting opportunities come unsought, opening for them the doors of the heavenly planets.
If, however, you do not perform your duty of good ghting, then you will certainly incur sins for neglecting your duties and thus lose your reputation as a ghter.